Truth in business online and off is finding its way through all of the hype and deception. The Internet gives creative people a platform devoid of the dire need for hard physical capital like the “old system” required even just to get the first feelers out. We’re using as many free services as we can to build a base of triple bottom line businesses – people, planet, profit. But in the 21st Century, profit has a different meaning altogether from its classic definition formed in greed and self-interest.

Many other terms are changing their definitions as the context shifts modes from the reckless to the sensible. We have collectively found the need for what sustains and helps us survive our own past madness. We are waking up to what should have, could have and would have been  35 years ago through a series of wake-up calls to what shall, can and will happen if we are to survive. What we have discovered is that Nature has given us abundance that we were simply too blind (or blinded) to see. We are made not only to survive but to thrive.

“Growth” is not for markets, companies or even social networks. It is again for the Natural world – trees, grass, flora and fauna and the ecosystem itself – as it was for Early Humankind. Scarcity was a modern myth. Now, we’re seeing people and ideas coming together through openness and sharing via the Public Domain, the Creative Commons, Open Source Licensing and other tools that show the willingness to express love and kindness through our work and insights. Rather than locking ideas away as ‘intellectual property’ or ‘trade secrets’ many of us have decided to buid and use the “Commons” approach and share everything we can. We have discovered that security – social, financial, even physical is at best a set of illusions based also in myth. Open, honest effort to build real community is true security.

“Business” is the art of staying on task; remaining focused yet open; being ready for unexpected change; becoming adaptable to emergent and divergent realities; accepting gifts; receiving instruction; listening to expressed needs; recognising unique skills:::

“Profit” is the act of receiving that which is given. The gift of life cannot be “earned” but it must be appreciated and nurtured through mutual respect and tender loving care. Profit in business has nothing at all to do with making money or building private wealth any more. When we value our world, it will take care of us. We are learning now to add value to our built environment that honors the natural environment that was here when we arrived and will remain when we’re gone.

See the rough draft of Business as UN-usual on Facebook.